“I don’t know,” said Folly in a troubled voice. She put up her face to be kissed like a child. “It’s been hurting so. Why did it hurt?”
The tears were running down her cheeks.
“David—will it go on hurting like that? I didn’t ever mean to be in love with anyone—I didn’t. I hate men, really; only I like to flirt. I don’t know why, but I do. I loved flirting with you, but I never, never, never meant to fall in love.”
She slipped out of his arms with a quick shrinking movement and stood away from him with her hands at her breast; her colour came and went.
“If you love people—it hurts. They—let you down.” She took a long sighing breath. “Eleanor—Eleanor and Cosmo—she got hurt—he let her down.”
She paused again, then said in a trembling whisper:
“Floss.”
David did not move or touch her. He looked into her eyes, and he saw things that he never forgot—a child’s gay bravado shocked into terror, a child’s loyalty and trust betrayed.
She met his look. There was silence between them, a long, long silence; her eyes looked into his. Then he saw something rise up, clear and shining. It was something new. It was Folly’s love for him.
He spoke to her very gently.
“Do you think I would hurt you? Do you think I would let you down?”
That shining love looked out of Folly’s eyes.
“No, David,” she said.
Suddenly she ran into his arms.
“Ooh!” she said. “You wouldn’t.”
About the Author
Patricia Wentworth (1878–1961) was one of the masters of classic English mystery writing. Born in India as Dora Amy Elles, she began writing after the death of her first husband, publishing her first novel in 1910. In the 1920s, she introduced the character who would make her famous: Miss Maud Silver, the former governess whose stout figure, fondness for Tennyson, and passion for knitting served to disguise a keen intellect. Along with Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, Miss Silver is the definitive embodiment of the English style of cozy mysteries.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1928 by Patricia Wentworth
Cover design by Mauricio Díaz
ISBN: 978-1-5040-3353-4
This edition published in 2016 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
180 Maiden Lane
New York, NY 10038
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Will O’ the Wisp Page 23
